What happened?
After a long fishing trip, we took some of our equipment onshore with us to sort it out at a later time because we were tired and ready to head home for a warm shower before completing our usual checks. On our next trip, we realised that some of the important items (including our first aid kit) had not been returned to the vessel meaning we had to make the very expensive and frustrating decision to return to port and cancel our trip. We definitely won’t be making this mistake twice!
What we learned:
We developed a small laminated checklist that every crew member knows they need to complete whenever they are the first person to get onto the vessel. The checklist covers all of our essential equipment and includes some tests of essential equipment too. This small change has helped us all feel safer at sea, and gotten us into some great habits with keeping equipment up to date.
tips and tools
It is suggested that all vessels conduct a two-person check of gear while onboard the vessel, before departure, using a standardised checklist template specific to the vessel. Vessels should conduct the following pre-departure checklist (or adapted for the specific vessel):
- Is the battery fully charged and switched on?
- Are the bungs in?
- Do you have all your safety equipment – list items out for checking.
- Do you have adequate lifejackets onboard – correct standard & quantity?
- Do you have a means of communication back to your parent vessel?
- Have you checked the weather forecast?
- Do you have a kill switch?
- Check the steering system
- Do you have enough fuel?
- Check the engine oil level
- Check the navigation lights are working
- Do you need warm clothes, wet weather gear, sunscreen, hat?
- Do you have spare tools?
- Does your bilge pump work?